Capture and Retrieve
by FrozenScarlet
Summary: What happens when Azula is let out and captures the Avatar? Based on the episode "The Blue Spirit" in the first season, this is an Avatar: The Last Airbender oneshot and a pilot


Author's note: This is my first try with making a oneshot and using Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought this might be pretty fun and all and believe me, it's pretty random. Er, not "funny" random but just…random. I'm basing this oneshot on that one episode in season 1 called "Blue Spirit." Especially the part where Aang got captured…That's when I got the idea: What would happen….If Aang was captured for more than just one night and, well, he actually got "hurt"? Well, anyways, I'm going to use only 1 OC (original character) but she won't have her own POV. All POV's is going to be from Azula, Zuko, Aang, and Katara. Also, I'm not going to use any "bad" words.

So, I hope you enjoy! :)

Capture and Retrieve

It's been over a year since Zuko's coronation as Fire Lord and Aang defeating the previous Fire Lord, Ozai. The world was at peace and everything went well; I even got the guy of my dreams.

Then, one peaceful evening…everything took a turn for the worst.

I was healing some of the elders in a Ba Sing Se clinic when a messenger came inside.

"Ms. Katara?" He asked. I nodded.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure but your brother and Fire Lord Zuko is at the palace…"

"Wait, what about Aang…?"

He shook his head. "I did not see him."

I began to worry. He's always there when there's a meeting. I could only hope he was just playing with some of the children and would be late…

A few minutes later, I arrived at the Palace. I was greeted with nobility, but i didn't notice it because I more important things in my mind. Two of the Dai Li opened the door to me. After the war was over, Zuko fixed up the Dai Li for the better with the help of Toph, who later became the leader of the Dai Li.

Once I arrived at the meeting room, Sokka, Zuko, Toph, and Suki were already inside…but no Aang.

"No…" I murmured as I looked into each member's face. Sokka broke the eerie silence by fake coughing.

"Ok, so, Zuko, you called Team Avatar to a meeting…We might as well get started…"

"It's pretty obvious what this meeting is about, Sokka." Zuko responded then looked at everyone at the round table. "Aang has gone missing. When I arrived at his small home, the inside was almost completely destroyed. There was a fight."

"Well, if there was a fight, then we would have all known it since we all live pretty close to each other." I replied.

"Unless the attacker chose a time when all of us were out…" Suki started. Then, Zuko slapped his forehead.

"Ugh, I was talking to the Earth King about some alliances."

"I was helping the nurses heal some of the elders at one of the clinics." I responded. Toph scoffed.

"I was playing with some of the earthbending kids."

"Me and Suki were teaching a warriors class."

"And Aang is usually practicing on his own or playing around with the kids…." I groaned. "This was the perfect time to somehow capture him."

"Well, he's the Avatar for crying out loud! He defeated Ozai only a year ago! Whoever this idiot is can't stand a chance!" Toph said, slamming her hand on the table.

"Whoever it was probably tried to knock him unconscious so he wouldn't bend." Sokka said, putting his hand under his chin as he thought about the various scenarios.

"And because they were close to town and innocent civilians, he wouldn't dare bend anything too extreme." Suki added.

"So we have a possible scenario of what could have happened." Zuko started. "The final question is….Who did it?"

We all looked at each other and had the same person in our minds.

XxXxXx

We rode on Appa's back as we returned back to the Fire Nation. After the war, many of the teachings were changed and many towns became less strict with their oppressive rules.

Once entering the Fire Nation, we arrived at a small island a few miles from the mainland where Zuko's palace is. In the small island was a large complex for….well, the mental. It was only a year ago when we admission this girl here…

When we entered the building, the man at the desk quickly greeted us with a normal fire nation bow.

"Fire Lord Zuko, it is an honor to see you. How may I serve you this fine afternoon?" He asked.

"Where's my sister?" Zuko asked, his voice stern. The man stood up straight.

"She is still in her room, as you ordered. The guards and everything."

"We need to see her." Sokka said. The man nodded and we followed him until we reached the second section of the complex and entered the end of one of the various hallways. 4 guards were placed and they were still there.

"Fire Lord Zuko!" The 4 said at once, bowing. As if they knew why we were here, they opened the door and the 5 of us went inside. Azula, after losing her sanity after the agni kai, was sent here in possible hopes she would attain sanity. Now seeing her, it looks like she regained at least 70 percent of it. She sat on her bed, her arms bound together behind her back. When she saw us, a smirk came across her face.

"Well, well, well, it seems like my brother and his little friends have come to visit me at my state. I should be honored." She said, sarcasm writing all over that statement. Zuko, obviously, ignored it and walked up to her.

"What did you do with Aang?" He asked. Azula laughed.

"The Avatar? Please, I haven't seen him ever since he did some weird bending on me about a year ago."

"Don't lie, Azula. Where is he?"

"Oh, ZuZu, don't say that. Why would I lie to the now Fire Lord….?" There was a tense kick to the last statement. It was a good thing that Aang told us he thought ahead and took her firebending away. That's when it hit me.

"Zuko, if Azula can't firebend, there's no way she would have been able to cause all the burns you said was in Aang's house."

"Tch…." Zuko turned to look at his sister. "Fine. But I know there's something wrong here and it has something to do with you."

Her smirk widened. "Believe what you want to believe, ZuZu."

XxXxXx

When the group left, I let out an even breath.

"They're gone." I murmured and a young girl appeared from the shadows. She had black hair, which she wore into two buns. She wore a normal Fire Nation military uniform as well.

"What is your command, Madam Azula?" She asked while kneeling. I smirked.

"You placed the Avatar where I wanted you to put him?"

"Yes ma'am. The place has been deserted since the end of the war."

"Indeed it has. Release me from my chains tonight."

"Why not now, Madam?"

I didn't answer but continued to smirk. Everything is going according to plan.

XxXxXx

"Ok, so, if Azula doesn't know where Aang is, who does?" Sokka asked. Zuko stayed quiet.

"Maybe Ozai knows where he is." Toph said. I nodded in agreement.

"He's the next threat." I added. Zuko shook his head.

"No, Aang stopped his firebending during his fight with him….He would be helpless."

"Well, that's the same for Azula." I said.

We were all silent until we reached Appa, who was waiting patiently at the bay.

"Lets all take a break at Zuko's palace. Maybe Iroh knows something that could benefit us." Suki suggested. We all agreed and left for his home.

Once we arrived, we found Iroh playing a round of Pai Sho with the other servants and workers inside one of the large rooms.

"Ah, Fire Lord Zuko, what are you doing home so early?" He asked, not taking his eyes away from the board.

"Uncle, can we talk to you privately?" Zuko asked. Iroh nodded while he moved one of his pieces. At that, I assumed he won when the other players groaned with displeasure.

"Don't worry. All of you are getting better. Tomorrow, we shall play another round!" Iroh said cheerfully. Then, he got up from his seat and followed him to a private room. The cushions formed a small circle in the middle. This was one of the meeting rooms for the White Lotus. The others were at Ba Sing Se, North Pole, and Omashu. Once we took a seat, Zuko and Sokka explained the Iroh what had happened. He didn't seem unfathomed by the information being thrown at him. When the two were done, Iroh sighed.

"I understand you may not think Azula or even Ozai might not have a part in this. But you must not underestimate them. They may have gotten someone to do their work for them…But for right now, you must find Aang. I assume this person hid him either underground or in a deserted area. If information got out that the Avatar has gone missing, people will begin to worry and our era of peace may not last long then we had hoped."

"Alright." Sokka said. "Suki, Toph, and I will go and search for places underground. Zuko and Katara will check out any of the deserted places that belonged to the Fire Nation. Probably a prison or a gate or even an abandoned work post place!"

Zuko's eyes widened and murmured something under his breath.

"Did you say something, Zuko?" Suki asked. He shook his head.

"Nothing…." Then he looked at everyone. "Alright. We better hurry and find him."

We all nodded and before we left, Iroh gave us a quick drink of his tea.

"You wouldn't want to be dehydrated." He said with a laugh. Zuko and I took Appa while the others, with Momo, went on foot.

While in the sky, Zuko seemed to know where to go.

"You've been pretty quiet over there. Is something wrong?"

"I have a feeling where Aang could be…But it'll take a while."

I didn't say anything afterwards.

XxXxXx

I felt myself come into consciousness.

"Wha….?" I murmured. It was dark but I felt something on my hands and feet. What was going on? Suddenly, a bright light appeared in front of me. I winced at the sudden light but when I saw who was at the door, I glared. I knew who it was even with if it wasn't looking at me.

"You thought I was in prison, didn't you, Avatar?"

"How did you get out, Azula?"

She looked up, her golden eyes piercing and deceiving.

"That is a secret." She replied as she walked up to me. Thanks to the light, I got to see where I was. It was like a Déjà vu from a little over a year ago, before defeating Ozai. I was in the same area where I got captured by Zhao….

"I had a feeling you were just going to escape without much effort." Azula started. "That is, of course, if I put you in a normal prison. That's when I knew that Zhao's little cage for you was a perfect place. Of course, I had to change a few things…"

I noticed that I was nowhere close to fire, everything around me was metal, and my hands and feet where covered with a metal thing along with it being attached to metal chains.

"I could just go into my Avatar State and get myself out…" I thought. Suddenly, Azula smirked.

"If you think you can get out with your Avatar State, then I dare you to try."

When she said that, I knew it was a trap. She had something up her sleeve.

"My friends will find me and you'll be put under arrest." I retorted. Azula laughed.

"How hilarious; you speak only part truth. Your friends will most definitely find you…."

I glared. "You can't trap all of us in here."

"I never said I'm taking prisoners, Avatar." Then, she walked out of the room, leaving me with a shocked look.

XxXxXx

We arrived at the place Zuko wanted to go first a week later. Because it was still in the Earth Kingdom, it took a longer time to arrive, even with Appa.

I looked at Zuko with confusion.

"What is this place?" I asked. "I've seen this place before…."

"Do you remember Zhao?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. He died back at the North Pole."

"Well, he owned this fortress…and at one point, he managed to capture Aang."

"What?"

"I guess Aang never told you….Well, you're about to see the place right now."

We landed in front of a huge complex.

"Wait…I think I remember Aang mentioning this place…."

Zuko stayed silent and grabbed his double swords from Appa's saddle.

"C'mon, I don't want to stay here any longer then we're supposed to."

I nodded; made sure my water pouch was filled up all the way, and followed him. The complex was completely deserted. From what I saw, horrible vines filled the walls and weeds made their own garden on the pathway.

"I need to remember to destroy this place after this is all over." I heard Zuko say to himself. At the gates, we noticed that it was locked.

"You don't lock a gate unless there's something to hide." I said. "If only Toph was here to break this metal gate down."

"We won't need her." Zuko said and used his firebending to break the door. We quickly walked inside and prepared ourselves. Instead of facing a large amount of rebels, it was quiet.

"This is a large complex. We'll get more ground if we split up." Zuko said and we quickly went our own way.

"Aang…" I thought. "Please be ok…"

A few minutes passed and everything was quiet. It really was deserted. At least, that's what I thought. I soon found a doorway. While I thought I should bring Zuko with me, it would make me feel weak. I could take care of myself anyways.

I went inside and noticed how the hallway was completely dusty. Cobwebs could be found in every corner and turn. Then, I stopped when I heard talking a few feet from where I stood.

"Oh….Madam Azula will get mad if I can't find her comb…" I heard a young girl say from inside a door. So Azula WAS part of Aang's capture….Maybe this girl was just a servant…But to be on the safe side, I stayed where I stood. When I saw her shadow at the door, I quickly hid behind a thick pillar.

I heard footsteps leaving the room and it began to fade. After a few moments of silence, I removed myself from the pillar and walked past the room. As I did so, I saw a simple bed, a closet, a countertop with a mirror, and various open firebending scrolls on the wall. Why would Azula have firebending scrolls in her room?

As I took a turn down the hall, I bumped into someone behind me. I turned around, getting into fighting stance. Then, I let out a sigh of relief. It was just Zuko. When he noticed it was me, he relaxed.

"Did you find anything?" He asked.

"I did hear someone talking about Azula…." I replied. Zuko grunted.

"Great. So she did lie." He looked away. "Lets just focus on getting Aang."

I nodded and we quietly ran through the hallway. It seemed like déjà vu from the time when Zuko helped me try to find the person who killed my mother.

I noticed that Zuko seemed to know where he was going.

"Do you know this place, too, Zuko?" I quietly asked. Zuko seemed to ignore me and kept walking. I huffed. Yeah, ignore me. I'm SO not here.

We arrived at a metal door at the end of one hallway. I heard panting from inside.

"Time to finish this, Avatar." I heard Azula say from inside. My eyes widened and I quickly waterbended the water out of my pouch and destroyed the door. Zuko and I jumped in.

"Stop right now, Azula." Zuko said as he took his stance. My eyes widened when I saw Aang. He was usually so lively and upbeat but now….It was like someone just sucked the living energy out of him and just left a piece for him to hold onto. And from the looks of things, it looked like he was losing his grip.

"Oh look who's here, Avatar. It's your firebending teacher and your waterbending teacher. How sweet." Azula responded with an extra punch of charisma.

"Let go of Aang!" I demanded, getting my water ready.

"You have nowhere to run, Azula! You can't firebend and it's two against one!" Zuko added, glaring at his younger sister. She smirked.

"Oh Zu Zu…there's just so many miscalculations in that statement."

Suddenly, we heard loud footsteps coming our way. We quickly dodged as white fire blared through the door.

"White….Fire….?" I thought. When the dust seemed to dissolve, Zuko and I saw a young girl at around 15 at the most. She wore a normal Fire Nation military uniform and had beautiful black hair that was worn into two buns. While she had a beautiful anterior, I could tell from just her eyes that there was more to that.

"I'd like you to meet Ran Mei." Azula said as Ran Mei made her way beside Azula. "She's been my loyal guard since I was placed in that blasted complex." Then, she cooled herself and looked at us. "And there is another thing wrong with your previous statement, Zu Zu….."

Suddenly, she took a stance and shot out fire from her fists. Zuko easily deflected it, but couldn't hide the shocked face. Oh, and instead of blue fire, it was red fire.

"I can still firebend!" Azula yelled and ran towards him. As Azula and Zuko quarreled, I quickly made my way towards Aang. But before I could make it, I was blocked by a small wall of white fire. I turned and saw Ran Mei dash towards me, shooting quick fire balls. I quickly deflected it and returned the attack with a water whip. She dodged and suddenly started generating lightning.

XxXxXx

As I fought Azula, I noticed a bright light on the side of my eye. My sister smirked.

"You better hurry, Zu Zu." She said as she shot a quick fire kick at me. I blocked it with my own fire kick and I made my way in front of Katara.

"Get Aang! I'll handle these two!" I said and once the lightning was sent from Ran Mei's fingers, I redirected it to the ceiling. Using this as a distraction, Katara moved through the falling metal and wood towards Aang. At the side, I saw Azula run out of the room.

Just before I could run after her, I was stopped by Ran Mei who, in turn, started shooting her flames at me. Our fires clashed and at first, there didn't seem to be an end until I heard a loud clunk from the end of the room. Ran Mei's eyes widened as she turned to see Aang in Katara's arms.

"It's over." I told the girl. "Unless you want to be taken in the hard way, I suggest you surrender."

At first, I thought we had to fight some more since she was my sister's guard but instead, she frowned and bowed her head.

"I surrender."

I walked slowly towards her, wondering if she was telling the truth. Once I was in front of her, I noticed a white flame at her right hand. We were too close so I could barely dodge it in time. If it hadn't been for Toph, who had cuffed Ran Mei's arms before she could release her fire at me, I would have been hit.

"Toph, when did you-" Katara started but Toph shrugged.

"Sorry Zuko, but we didn't feel like starting our journey in the Fire Nation. Besides, I could sense that you knew where Aang was. So, I left Sokka and Suki and followed you guys."

"Wait….how…." Katara started again but was once again interrupted.

"You buys brought a big sack right? Didn't you think it was strange how it was really heavy then you thought?"

Katara and I were silent.

"We had other things to think about then how heavy a bag is." I countered and walked towards Aang. "Are you alright?"

He moaned. "A little. Katara's water healing helped…"

Then I turned to Toph again. "Did you catch Azula on your way here?"

"Unfortunately no."

"This isn't good, Zuko." Katara stated as if I didn't know that. "She'll be back…"

"But with what army?" I asked. It was silent for a minute before I continued.

"We'll be ready for her if she comes. For now, we have to bring Aang to the nearest clinic and get him patched up. Toph and I will take Ran Mei to the prison where Ozai is."

They agreed and left the building. Once Aang and Ran Mei were placed on Appa, Katara, Toph, and I destroyed the entire building.

"Great job, Firelord. You destroyed everything except for this place." I heard Toph murmur. I didn't say anything as we got on Appa and first headed for Ba Sing Se. Along the way, Aang described his situation in the place. Because he couldn't bend, he was completely helpless. When he tried to escape or struggle, lightning was sent from the chains and shocked his entire body. He states that Ran Mei fed him well and treated him with respect when Azula wasn't around. Hm…guess she wasn't Azula's loyal guard after all….She was probably forced to help. Now I had to find my insane sister again and take her into custody. Guess she can't be helped after all….When I asked why Aang hadn't taken away her firebending, he states that she thought she would turn good afterwards and didn't take it completely away. Instead, he neutralized it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know my sister too well…Well, wherever she is, she won't make it for long…

XxXxXx

I stopped running when I saw an old herbal building. Stupid brother and her friends….Just when I could finally take him down….Ugh, how pathetic. I made my way inside and noticed it was abandoned. Perfect.

As I walked past the various plants and other garden materials, I noticed a mirror. As I stopped to look at myself, I was surprised to see the reflection. The mirror showed a young girl with long black hair and golden eyes. Her eyes showed pain and deception with a tint of blistering evil. As I looked at myself, I remembered the day before my coronation in becoming the firelord….The day that woman appeared….

"Azula, is that you?"

My eyes widened and turned around, preparing to attack. Then I stopped when I saw who had said that question. It was so surprising to see that I began to slowly shake with fear, anger, sadness, and even joy.

"It's you…..I thought you were dead…." I murmured. The woman smiled at me.

"I'm glad you're ok, Azula."

For the first time in a long time….I was completely speechless. The woman that stood in front of me was…..

* * *

Note: I hope this didn't suck too bad! This was my first Avatar: The Last Airbender thing as well as a oneshot so y'know...it's a pilot. I wanted to do this in "dedication" to the upcoming live action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie coming out July 1st, 2010. Personally, i think the casting sucked but hey, i'm a true Avatar: The Last Airbender fan SO i must watch (at least to complain about the horrible-ness of it!). I hope to do another oneshot like this again! :) Anyways, thanks for reading my pilot! LOL


End file.
